"I did it" - Obama Sworn In For 2nd Term As US President.

[Ideologue]

Who and what the hell are you talking about?

I assume the folks that warned that the Fed extraordinary measures would prompt hyperinflation.

Yes.  Though I can't really name any of them off the top of my head.

[DGuller]

Where do you put Steven Landsburg on your continuum?

Is he even a serious economist?  He strikes me as a pop economist who often stumbles upon counter-intuitive results, mainly due to ignoring simpler and obvious answers.

[Razgovory]

Where do you put Steven Landsburg on your continuum?

Is he even a serious economist?  He strikes me as a pop economist who often stumbles upon counter-intuitive results, mainly due to ignoring simpler and obvious answers.

Let me guess, some crazy libertarian?

[DGuller]

Where do you put Steven Landsburg on your continuum?

Is he even a serious economist?  He strikes me as a pop economist who often stumbles upon counter-intuitive results, mainly due to ignoring simpler and obvious answers.

Let me guess, some crazy libertarian?

[Razgovory]

Well those are the only ones for Skip, so it's not hard to guess.

[DGuller]

I had to use his microeconomics textbook when studying for an actuarial exam back in the day, which is how I originally became aware of this so-called economist.  I remember reading some musings by him in some other book, pondering car safety.

He started off with the fact that car accident fatalities have remained steady over many decades, despite advances in car safety technology.  He went on to conclude that as cars became safer, people started consuming more of reckless driving, which canceled out the advances.  He then hypothesizes that car accident deaths could be minimized by installing a sharp spike in the middle of the steering wheel, since people would then be reluctant to crash.

Of course, what he failed to take into account is that people are covering more miles than they did decades ago.  By death-per-mile statistics, car accidents deaths have actually fallen precipitously, almost by a factor of ten when compared to 1940-ies.  Anyone even remotely familiar with car safety would be at the very least aware of measuring car safety with such a statistic.  However, Landsburg is too much of an unconventional thinker to use such common sense and basic knowledge in the field he opines on.

[Razgovory]

I do admit, I admire people who are completely insane like that.  It take a very pure high-grade madness to come to those type of conclusions.

[Razgovory]

I wonder if aviation related deaths have dropped dramatically.  I seem to recall there was alarming number of people who died in airplanes in the early 1940's.

[CountDeMoney]

I wonder if aviation related deaths have dropped dramatically.  I seem to recall there was alarming number of people who died in airplanes in the early 1940's.

  I suppose they did.

[derspiess]

Where do you put Steven Landsburg on your continuum?

Is he even a serious economist?  He strikes me as a pop economist who often stumbles upon counter-intuitive results, mainly due to ignoring simpler and obvious answers.

Let me guess, some crazy libertarian?

IS THERE ANY OTHER KIND LOLWTF

[The Minsky Moment]

Landsburg is a micro guy.

[Razgovory]

What, like under five foot?

[Ed Anger]

 

[derspiess]

Don't laugh at that.

[Ed Anger]

Calm down now.